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Turning Buckets of Seawater into Artisan Salt

by Joanne Camas

on 09/26/13 at 03:00 PM

Some people join a band for fun, or play volleyball or golf, perhaps. Others bake, or curl up with a good book. Ben Jacobsen's hobby was making salt, and two years ago he parlayed that into a small business.

"I harvested salt for a couple of years for fun," he says. "I really enjoyed hanging out at the coast [he lives in Oregon], and I'd haul a few gallons of salt water back with me. I made salt as a hobby, like homebrewing beer."

Ben quickly learned a tough lesson. "It's easy to make bad salt but hard to make good salt." What makes salt bad? Well, he explains that bad salt is not very tasty. "It can have a bitter after-taste, or be stringent," he says, "and have a yellowish appearance."

Jacobsen Salt, on the other hand, is a different beast altogether. "Ours is beautiful snowflakes, pyramid crystals on your food that give a delicate crunch," says Ben.

Chefs across the country concur. April Bloomfield of New York's Spotted Pig now only uses Jacobsen Salt, and many other top chefs love the flavor and place regular orders too.

Ben says you don't need a chef's palate to appreciate good salt, though. "It's a little intimidating to get into it at first, with all the flowery language involved, but the average person can spot the difference right away," he explains. You also don't need a deep pocket to enjoy it: "It's an often overlooked but highly affordable luxury," he adds.

Jacobsen Salt recently relocated from Portland to a refurbished oyster farm right on the Oregon coast, at Netarts Bay. While all the salt is still produced by hand, the process is more efficient logistically. (No more hauling water 90 miles!)

With the streamlining have come some new flavored salts. Local caffeine purveyor Stumptown Coffee Roasters supplies its Hairbender coffee for one salt –- "It's beautiful stuff!" raves Ben -– and another favorite is a salt infused with lemon, which adds a zing to fish and fresh vegetable dishes.

So, will the expansion and popularity mean mechanization? "No, we'll continue to do everything by hand," Ben says. "It's not the most efficient way, but we're never going to compromise quality."